Do you thinking Google will ever start charging for its Android OS ??

[wirednuts]

i thought the whole point of android was to be free and open sourced to promote support and growth

 

[Mopetar]

i thought the whole point of android was to be free and open sourced to promote support and growth

That's just a side effect, if anything. Google (or almost any other company for that matter) really doesn't care about open source or promoting it unless it suits their needs. Android is open source and freely available as a means to get carriers and handset makers to adopt it over something like Windows Phone.

The whole reason that Google got involved with Android is that they thought that in the future, most traffic will be mobile and that given the seriously closed nature of existing platforms (PalmOS and Windows Mobile) it would be possible for a company like Microsoft to completely cut Google out in favor of their own search and ad solutions.

 

[hasu]

Isn't android based on Linux kernel?

 

[kaerflog]

I wish people stop repeating what Google business model for Android is.
We all know what it is.
The big question is how much Google is making from Android.
I don't think its much.
Google last quarter net income was ~$2.8 billions.
How much of that was from Android ???
Compared that to Samsung making about ~$3.6 billions from just its mobile business.
Don't you think Google would love to get some licensing fees from all those millions of Android phones Samsung is selling ??

 

[Dominato3r]

I wish people stop repeating what Google business model for Android is.
We all know what it is.
The big question is how much Google is making from Android.
I don't think its much.
Google last quarter net income was ~$2.8 billions.
How much of that was from Android ???
Compared that to Samsung making about ~$3.6 billions from just its mobile business.
Don't you think Google would love to get some licensing fees from all those millions of Android phones Samsung is selling ??

OK, sure, but what benefit would Samsung now reap for paying for an Android license?

IIRC of the things MS has in its licensing agreements, among others, is that it will protect you from software litigation if infringement claims are made against their software that you (OEM) use.

 

[Dari]

The second Google makes money off android apple will sue the hell out of them.the only reason apple is suing Samsung is they sell the most phones and can put a number on what they can ask for damages.

Google makes no money off android so suing them would mean nothing and the whole point of Linux is to be open source anyway.

If moto sold as many phones as Samsung it would be them fighting in court and Google is helping Samsung in court because if they lose Google will lose also.

The only reason Google bought Motorola was for its patents and Google is killing it self for not patenting things from the get go.

They could care less how many cell phones moto sells they only nought them to help android and Samsung in the patent fight there dealing with apple

Apple went after HTC as well and HTC settled, I think. Samsung bucked and this is the result...

 

[lothar]

Apple went after HTC as well and HTC settled, I think. Samsung bucked and this is the result...

AFAIK, HTC never settled with Apple.
Link?

 

[mammador]

I wish people stop repeating what Google business model for Android is.
We all know what it is.
The big question is how much Google is making from Android.
I don't think its much.
Google last quarter net income was ~$2.8 billions.
How much of that was from Android ???
Compared that to Samsung making about ~$3.6 billions from just its mobile business.
Don't you think Google would love to get some licensing fees from all those millions of Android phones Samsung is selling ??

It's shooting themselves in the foot.

The OEMs are partners, not true competitors. To use an analogy, should Kellogg's or Jordan's piss off Walmart? Why should they, since they rely on them to sell their product (as intermediaries)?

I'm not sure what proportion of Google's revenues or profits Android contributes, but to me it seems like a cash cow. It has by far the largest market share of mobile OS', and is well-placed amongst the general product portfolio of Google products. In that respect, I doubt the Google senior management give a shit.

Business is sometimes win-win, as Samsung's success is Google's success. It's not win at all costs. Presumably, Samsung may have a deal with Google that for every phone sold x amount is paid, who knows? If anything, this seems most likely.